Step 13: Step 13: Light Covers

Step 14: Step 14: Final Assembly

Once all the electrical components (except for the switch) are connected and secured to the "spine", connect the circuitry to the switch using alligat...

A “Glowing Crosswalk” is a traffic-calming mechanism that creates a path of light across an intersection in order to improve the visibility of pedestrians to oncoming traffic as they cross through the path. I created and exhibited a prototype of this urban design concept for the San Francisco Urban Prototyping Festival in October, 2012. This Instructable describes how to make such a prototype. Please note that this prototype was designed and built for a temporary installation only. Some modifications will be necessary to create a more permanent installation (not to mention various city permits and other legal approval).

This Glowing Crosswalk prototype consists of four, free-standing “light poles” that are to be placed in pairs on the sidewalk on either side of an intersection. Each light pole features three high-powered LED lights and a “push-to-cross” button switch. When a pedestrian approaches the intersection and pushes the switch on any of the poles, a radio frequency signal is sent to the other three poles and they all run an identical program in unison. The program cycles the lights through an “on”, “blinking” and “off” phase (similar to existing crosswalk light sequences). The following steps will describe the process for making one of these light poles.

The effect of the Glowing Crosswalk is a temporary field of light that not only illuminates the crossing path but, most importantly, illuminates anyone moving through the crossing path as the light reflects off their body, making the pedestrian more visible to oncoming traffic.

Considering the number of crosswalk incidents this seems an interesting idea. In my area there are lights embedded into the pavement. Difficult to steal or vandalize without a jack hammer. Will theft be a problem with these?

This is extraordinary! The Transportation Research Board may be the place to present this. The Annual Meeting for 2013 just concluded but perhaps you could present this at the 2014 meeting. It is a great venue for ideas to be presented to a large audience of decision makers from all over the country. Best of luck!!

Awesome! How would you go about pitching these to the city to allow testing for long term? I love these, and would love to try and get my city council to allow me to install them, and maybe even give me some funds to make them.

Great question, Cmcgann! I'm working on communications with the Urban Planning Department here in San Francisco. It seems that progress in the short term will involve subsequent iterations of the prototype (refined for longer, unsupervised exposure) that can be deployed temporarily as a means of communicating the benefits of such an urban design concept to the powers that be. I would very much love to see the Glowing Crosswalk become a reality!

I vote. Are they synced with the red traffic light ?… They should !… The only minus I find is this project is that it requires new learnings from the drivers as they should learn to see a crosswalk made of light !…

About This Instructable

Bio:I am an industrial product designer based in San Francisco, CA. I love challenges and want to solve problems, large and small. I want to design improvements to public space that empower people to lead...read more »